Description of Account Books

Both books are octavos, bound in full limp calf, bindings of both volumes worn, rubbed and scuffed entries are written in ink in clear, legible hands.

The David Meredith volume is inscribed "D. Meredith" on the front board, and there is only one account listed in it that of David Meredith. This book records various entries for cash expenditures for the payment of wood, boarding, advertising in newspaper, snuff, segars (cigars),  for barbering expenses, etc., as well as cash paid to himself"

"1819 May 26    To cash                                    150 "

"1819 Sept 10    To Carter hack-hire         20"

"1819 Dec 27     To Cord of wood, hauling              6.9 3"

"1820 May 16    To Mrs. Miller boarding   40 "

"1820 Aug't 24   To Poulson for adv't         1.33 "

"1820 Nov 6      To segars                        1.50 "

William Meredith’s account  book is not signed, but his name appears on a pew rent receipt for Christ Church, that is laid in, and the entries in the volume appear to show various court cases (he was an attorney), as well as money that is being loaned to David Meredith such as:

"1810 March 4 - D. Meredith lent 100 -"

"1810 Apr by bond of D. Meredith 4 inst - 100"

"1810 May 23 - D. Meredith lent to be returned 25th - 200"

"1810 May 30 - R. Rush costs to Hallelay v. Tatham - 37.09"

"1810 May 30 - Cotterrle v. Calbraith - 143.56"    

       David Meredith (c1771-1835) and William Meredith (1772-1844)

David and William Meredith were the sons of Jonathan Meredith (1740-1811), who emigrated from Leominster, Herefordshire, England, to Philadelphia in the 1750s and established a successful tannery (1772-1811). Jonathan Meredith married Elizabeth Tuckey and together they had at least five children. One daughter, Mary married Thomas Hawthorn, of Hawthorn & Kerr, merchants. Another daughter, Elizabeth, married Charles Ogden, of Rutgers, Seaman & Ogden, also merchants. A son, Jonathan Meredith, Jr., became an attorney and moved to Baltimore, Maryland. The other two children were their sons David and William, who kept the account books offered here.

David Meredith, assisted his father from a young age in the tannery, but partnered with Robert Andrews under the name of "Andrew & Meredith" in 1793. David was responsible for the French portion of this enterprise, which imported European luxury goods into Philadelphia, and he moved to Paris where he established trade with merchants in both that city and Bordeaux. This business met with several difficulties owing to strict Parisian commercial regulations, political hostilities between France and Great Britain, and also from David's contracting with unreliable French merchants; the firm dissolved by 1796 when Andrews pulled out of their partnership without David's knowledge. The massive debt owed by Andrews & Meredith fell on the shoulders of David's father Jonathan, and greatly depleted the Meredith family fortune. David returned to Philadelphia in 1797 and resumed his position at the Meredith tannery. From 1800-1801 he entertained a brief stint as a supercargo for the firm, Rutgers, Seaman, & Ogden (of which his brother-in-law Charles Ogden was partner) to St. Sebastian. In 1805, Jonathan sold the entire stock of his tannery to David, making him the sole owner. Following that sale, Jonathan continued to advise his son and have some interest in the success of the tannery but for the most part settled into retirement. Toward the end of his life, David fell into obscurity and he is believed to have died in Philadelphia unmarried around 1835. Jonathan Meredith, Jr., the Meredith's youngest son, moved to Baltimore in 1805 where he established a private practice and was also a leading member in that city's Bar.

David's brother, William Meredith (1772-1844), the most prominent of the Meredith's sons, also assisted his father at the Meredith tannery when he was a young boy, but chose to pursue a legal career. He was educated at the University of Pennsylvania and was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar in September 1795. That same year he married Gertrude Gouverneur Ogden (1777-1828), the daughter of the merchant Samuel Ogden and his wife Euphemia Morris. Gertrude was also the niece of Lewis Morris, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and of lawyer and politician Gouverneur Morris, who helped write the Constitution. Together William Meredith and Gertrude had eleven children: William Morris, Sarah, Gouverneur Morris, Sullivan Amory, Euphemia Morris, Samuel Ogden, Morris Ogden, Joseph Dennie, Gertrude Euphemia, Ann, and Miriam.

Both William and Gertrude Meredith were respected individuals in their own right. In addition to maintaining his own private practice, William was also appointed president of the Schuylkill Bank in 1814 and contributed much to that institution and also to the chartering of Pennsylvania county banks throughout his career. Because of his legal and banking experience and also his support of a centralized banking system, William was also considered a candidate for the presidency of the Second Bank of the United States in 1816 but lost that appointment to Nicholas Biddle. Politically, William was an ardent Federalist and served as a member of both the Philadelphia Common and Select Councils, and also contributed much to Philadelphia society as a trustee for the University of Pennsylvania and the Academy of the Episcopal Church; as a warden in Philadelphia’s Christ Church; and as a board member for several charitable organizations including the Committee for the Guardians of the Poor, the Greek Fund, and the Philadelphia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb.

From 1800 to 1814, William Meredith’s Philadelphia legal practice, which focused mostly on mercantile cases relating to the settling of unpaid bills, shipping disputes, and insurance claims continued to grow. Most of his clients were from Philadelphia and New York, and in the New York cases he often worked in conjunction with other lawyers including Thomas L. Ogden, Samuel Corp, Gabriel Shaw, and Thomas Maule. William also associated frequently with William Sullivan and John Maude of Boston, and with his brother Jonathan Meredith Jr., who had moved to Baltimore in 1805 to establish his own legal practice and frequently was in touch with his more experienced brother for advice.

William's wife, Gertrude Gouveneur Ogden Meredith, had been educated in the classics of French, Latin, and Greek and had also studied Shakespeare as a young girl. From this extensive education she became a lover of literature and extended her own scholarly prowess through her letter writing and also through her poetry. Gertrude was highly respected in Philadelphia society as a mother, wife, hostess, and writer. She is known to have conversed with such literary men as Joseph Dennie, who was the editor of the popular Philadelphia magazine, the Port Folio, and even had some of her own works published in that magazine between 1801 and 1804. Both Gertrude and William Meredith became close friends with Dennie, who lived in the Meredith home from time to time and they named one of their sons after him.

William and Gertrude Meredith shared a deep bond and when Gertrude died in 1828 after a painful battle with rheumatism, the loss so prostrated William that he never fully recovered. After her death, William turned most of his attention to his children, focusing most of his efforts on the legal and political career of his oldest son, William Morris Meredith. William Meredith suffered a debilitating stroke in 1839 and never fully recuperated. He died in 1844.

William Meredith's namesake, William Morris Meredith (1799-1873), assumed the role of father figure to his brother and sisters following his father’s stroke in 1839. He was also busy with a political and legal career that had begun in 1817, the year he had been admitted to the Pennsylvania bar. William Morris Meredith’s legal practice had been slow to start, but he made a name for himself in the 1822 law suit Commonwealth vs. Cook. For this suit, he served as the associate counsel and supported the senior counsel James C. Biddle (William Morris’s good friend and later his brother-in-law), who questioned the conduct of the presiding arbitrator Judge Hallowell. Biddle’s comments and William Morris’s concurrence with the remarks greatly offended the judge and he charged them with contempt of court, and they were held in the state penitentiary at Broad and Arch Streets for thirty days. This event was widely publicized and launched William Morris’s legal and political career, which became characterized by his irascible temper, fearlessness, and inflexible honesty. Shortly thereafter, he became the president of the Pennsylvania Bar Association.

William Morris Meredith affiliated himself with the Federalist, Whig, and Republican parties over the course of his political career. He served as a Pennsylvania state representative (1824-1828), as a member of the 1837 Pennsylvania State Convention, as the Pennsylvania district attorney for a brief stint in 1841, as the secretary of the treasury in the cabinet of President Zachary Taylor (1849-1850), was a delegate to the Abortive Peace Conference in 1861, and as the Pennsylvania attorney general from 1861 to 1867. He is perhaps most noted for his efforts as the secretary of the treasury (1849-1850), during which time he focused on a revision of the coastal survey code and also revising the tariff bill which had been instituted by his predecessor Robert J. Walker. He married Catherine Kepple in 1834 and had six children.